“People from China came and built a new factory at [xxx] mine but they were only concerned with the factory operations and did not care about workers’ health or the environment. Even when workers and people became very sick from the poisonous smoke, the Chinese businessmen and the Burmese government did not say anything. When people began to die because of the black smoke, they did not say or do anything. They do not care about us.”

(Male Miner, Shan State)¹

“The soil itself is not dangerous, but sometimes when I am digging up the soil, I inhale the chemicals and it makes me cough a lot and vomit. We believe that if we eat a lot of morning glory, or a kind of spinach, along with many bananas, they will weaken the impact of the sulfur and acid on our health... We found the disposed chemical waste from near the [xxx] mine site. At least ten of us went there to carry the waste and soil back to our village. The security guards at [xxx] saw us and they knew what we were doing, but they did not say anything or try to stop us. They understand our situation. We do this to earn money. It is difficult to earn an income in Burma and we need money to survive.”

(Female Miner, Sagaing Division)²

“The villagers had pooled their money to rent some basic mining equipment. The Karen National Union (KNU), however, did not want people working in this area, so members of the Karen National Liberation Army’s (KNLA) Third Brigade burned down all the huts. The villagers fled, but did not return to their home village since they feared for their lives. A SPDC patrol, LIB #57 commanded by Zaw Tun, later found two people hiding in the forest nearby and accused them of supporting the KNU. A woman, [xxx] was kidnapped by the battalion and later raped by one of them. She was released afterwards. [xxxx], a relative,  filed a complaint with the battalion commander, who gave this person one bag of paddy and 10,000 Kyat as “hush money” not to tell the officials at the Township Office. [xxx] was so upset by the way the incident was handled that he went to the Township Office, but the official he spoke with was not interested in pursuing the matter further.

(Male Miner, Shwe Gin Division)³

Mining: Addressing the Gender Gap

Mining presents serious obstacles to policy makers, activists, and affected communities interested in mitigating the industry’s negative impacts around the world. Of all the obstacles, perhaps the most serious one is the gap that exists between 1) what these three different groups know; 2) how they conceptualize and talk about their respective concerns; and 3) what resources each group is able to mobilize to take action. This gap, which is a significant obstacle to long-lasting and successful forms of collaboration, is rarely recognized for a simple reason: each partner assumes that everyone else defines the problems in much the same way and, as a result, desires the same solutions. These assumptions appear most forcefully around the question of gender.

Most campaigns to change destructive mining practices typically focus either on protecting the natural environment or the labor rights of workers. In both cases, gender is usually subsumed within one or both of these two broader categories, namely environmental rights and human rights. Gender concerns, in other words, tend to become invisible. As a consequence, proposed solutions to the problems generated by mining operations frequently fail to adequately address the needs of women, which are often quite different from those of men.

This omission is striking in two respects. Worldwide, between eighty and one hundred million people are directly and indirectly dependent upon non-industrial forms of mining for their livelihoods. Of these, an estimated thirty-percent are women.⁴ Additionally, mounting evidence now shows that women, due to gendered forms of socioeconomic discrimination, do not generally benefit from mining operations. Rather, women bear a much greater proportion of the negative impacts in nearly all cases. To address this persistent problem, gender concerns should be more fully taken into account when designing and implementing mining activities. Unfortunately, all too often they are not.⁵

A growing number of organizations around the world are attempting to correct this problem. EarthRights International (ERI), through its fact-finding research into the mining industry inside Burma, is participating in this important process. Mining is very widespread in Burma. In fact, mining arguably affects a larger number of people in Burma than the other extractive industries in the country (timber, natural gas, and hydroelectric power generation) combined. However, mining operations in Burma have received very little scrutiny to date. ERI is addressing this alarming oversight.

Women’s groups and environmental groups have much to gain by collaborating with one another on mining in Burma. To this end, this article offers additional background information that will be of interest to groups concerned with either women’s rights or the environment. Each section summarizes areas where these respective issues overlap.